Caribbean Matters is a weekly series from Daily Kos. Hope you’ll join us here every Saturday. If you are unfamiliar with the region, check out Caribbean Matters: Getting to know the countries of the Caribbean.
Ahead of the presidential election, there was a concerted effort from punditry to preemptively point fingers at and blame Black men for abandoning Vice President Kamala Harris. Some—including President Barack Obama—predicted that Black men’s misogyny would never allow them to vote for or accept a Black woman (or any woman) in charge. This has been vociferously debunked by exit poll data, since after Black women, Black men were Harris’ strongest supporters—just as they were in 2020 and in 2016.
Some of those faux charges got me to thinking about Black female heads of state—both elected and appointed in our neighboring countries of the Caribbean. If there had been some cultural norm that is specifically Black male-related, these countries would have openly revolted when a woman took the helm, or never elected them to it.
Am I saying that machismo, male chauvinism, and patriarchy are absent in our island neighbors? No. It’s a global phenomenon, and it can be deadly. But while our supposedly Democratic society hasn’t managed yet to “put a woman in charge,” we in the States have been left in the dust by our more advanced neighbors.
Gender equity in government is an issue being tracked by the United Nations, with the goal of “achieving gender parity in political life globally.” So let’s meet some of the Caribbean women who have broken glass ceilings that we have as yet, failed to achieve.
By now, readers of this series should be familiar with Mia Mottley, who is not only the prime minister of Barbados, but has also achieved world prominence, particularly around issues of climate change.
Mottley’s impressive work has been featured frequently in “Caribbean Matters.”
Caribbean Matters: Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados is a force to be reckoned with
Caribbean Matters: ‘Listen to Mia’ highlights a message to the world from Barbados PM Mia Mottley
Caribbean Matters: Barbados PM Mia Mottley viewed as top choice for future UN secretary-general
Caribbean Matters: Barbados’ Mia Mottley stuns the world again, this time at COP26
Caribbean Matters: At COP27, Barbados PM Mia Mottley is a powerful voice addressing climate change
Caribbean Matters: The world celebrates Barbados PM Mia Mottley’s response to reporter’s question
Caribbean Matters: Barbados PM Mia Mottley to deliver keynote at U.S. reparations convention
Iif you haven’t met them already, let’s meet some other groundbreaking women leaders of the Caribbean. Pictured at the top of the story is the first female prime minister of Jamaica, Portia Simpson-Miller, when she hosted President Barack Obama in 2015.
Encyclopedia.com has Simpson-Miller’s biography.
In 2006, Portia Simpson Miller became the first woman to lead a government in the West Indian island nation of Jamaica. She had campaigned on pledges to reduce crime, poverty, and unemployment, and during her first few months in office she scored record-high approval ratings in public-opinion polls. A writer for the Economist magazine described the career politician as “something of a breath of fresh air for a country whose politics has long been dominated by elderly men,” adding that Simpson Miller, often referred to by Jamaicans as Sista P, had celebrated her 60th birthday by the time she took office yet “looks younger and has an easy, magnetic charm.”
Simpson Miller was born on December 12, 1945, in Wood Hall in the parish of St. Catherine on Jamaica, and attended Marlie Hill Primary School. She studied at St. Martin’s High School for Girls, and was first elected to office in her late 20s when she ran for a local councilor’s seat in the Trench Town West constituency of the Kingston & St. Andrew Corporation (KSAC), as the combined parish governments are known. Trench Town West was a notoriously poor district and had been a Jamaican Labour Party (JLP) stronghold for many years. Simpson Miller’s victory in the 1974 local election marked the first time a member of the country’s other leading political organization, the People’s National Party of Jamaica, or PNP, had won there.
Simpson-Miller’s rise to the Prime Minister’s seat in Jamaica is an extraordinary story — detailed in the 2019 documentary “Journey, Break Every Rule. Marcia Rowe reviewed it for The Jamaica Gleaner :
Simpson Miller said that she was intrigued by the title, ‘ Break Every Rule’ as she has indeed broken some rules in being a fierce defender of the poor, Jamaica’s first female leader of government, and Jamaica’s first female prime minister. Her journey, she said, was influenced by a number of persons, including her father, when she was growing up in Wood Hall, St Catherine.
Fittingly, Journey, Break Every Rule begins in Wood Hall with a young Portia writing her autobiography. She draws stick people to illustrate her family. The journey to the city is captured in a moving bus. Subsequently, through still shots and video footage, her sojourn into politics takes shape. Her triumphs and successes, from being a councillor of South West St Andrew to being prime minister of Jamaica, inform the 52 minutes documentary.
Watch “Journey, Break Every Rule” in its entirety below.
The Jamaica Gleaner posted its own 3-minute feature about Simpson-Miller in 2017.
The distinction of electing the first-ever woman to the office of prime minister in the entire Caribbean—and the Americas writ large—belongs to voters in the island nation of Dominica. Dominica is often confused with the Dominican Republic, but they are not the same country.
Meet Dame Eugenia Charles.
In 2012, CaribNation’s Derrick Deane interviewed Charles’ biographer, attorney Gabriel Christian.
From the CaribNation TV’s video notes:
CaribNation’s interview with Gabriel Christian, author of the book MAMO! The life and times of Dame Mary Eugenia Charles.
Prime minister of Dominica from 1980 to 1995, Mary Eugenia Charles was born May 15, 1919 in Pointe Michel, Dominica. She is a granddaughter of former slaves and one of five children of John Baptiste and Josephine Delauney. Her father was the founder of the Penney Bank. Her three brothers are doctors while her sister is a nun. Charles attended Catholic schools in Dominica and Grenada, then, from 1942 to 1946, she went to the University College of the University of Toronto and received a B.A. in law. She continued her studies of law at the London School of Economics and Political Science. When she returned home in 1949, she became the first woman lawyer on this Caribbean island.
Unpacking the Charles legacy is complex. She was Prime Minister when there was an attempt to overthrow the Dominican government in 1981, as detailed in Caribbean Matters: Have you heard of the failed ‘Bayou of Pigs’ coup attempt?
She also stood by and supported U.S. President Ronald Reagan’s invasion of Grenada, covered in Caribbean Matters: Remembering ‘Urgent Fury’—Reagan’s invasion of Grenada.
YouTuber Almira Lewis explores her background, rise to power, and the contradictions in her legacy—in just 12 minutes.
From Almira Lewis- Moments In Time’s video notes:
Charles’ administration is credited with facilitating the US “invasion” of Grenada, during the Reagan administration.The invasion was in response to political instability and concerns about the influence of Marxist elements in the Grenadian government. The operation, code-named Operation Urgent Fury, aimed to restore stability and protect American citizens on the island. Eugenia Charles’ endorsement played a role in justifying military action. The invasion resulted in the removal of the Grenadian government and the establishment of a more moderate leadership. Topics covered include Operation Red Dog, Reagan, Hurricane David, and more!
Haiti has had two women serve as prime minister. The first was Claudette Werleigh, who served from 1995-1996.
From 2011’s “Biography of a woman peacemaker – Claudette Werleigh,” from the University of San Diego’s Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice:
The daughter of a prosperous business family, Werleigh was brought up on one side of Haiti’s social fabric, but she soon saw the realities of the other side. The structural violence embedded in Haitian society had a profound effect on Werleigh, now known in her life’s work as a staunch advocate for keeping policies and practices firmly rooted in the needs and voices of the grassroots.
As a young adult focused on justice for those caught in Haiti’s disparate social structure, Werleigh was drawn to the field of education — specifically adult literacy — and started a school for adults and rural Haitian farmers. Community-owned and run throughout Haiti’s tumult of political violence, earthquakes and epidemics, the school has been open and running for 33 years. Under the dictatorship of Jean-Claude Duvalier, Werleigh served as secretary general of Caritas Haiti for 10 years, coordinating relief assistance, civic education and respect for human rights.
The Kroc Institute interviewed Werleigh for its Women’s Peacemaker conference, also in 2011.
The second woman to serve as Haiti’s prime minister was Michèle Pierre-Louis, who served from 2008- 2009. Journalist Michael Deibert, interviewed her for InterPress in 2009.
Q&A: “The Elites Are Like a Huge Elephant Sitting on Haiti”
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jul 3 2009 (IPS) – Haitian Prime Minister Michèle Pierre-Louis assumed office in September 2008. Born in the southern city of Jérémie in 1947, she left Haiti with her family in 1964 following a pogrom by dictator François Duvalier against his perceived enemies in her town.
[…]
IPS: Could you speak a little bit about your background? MPL: I was born in Jérémie, and my parents were people extremely dedicated to the country. My father and my mother were raised during the U.S. occupation, and that whole generation was very nationalistic, it was very important to be proud of your country, to love your country, to know your country.
My involvement started very early because I was involved in youth groups against Duvalier, which at the time was very dangerous. There were lots of groups that were fighting clandestinely against the dictatorship, and I lost a lot of friends who disappeared.
One day you would hear that [the government] got them and put them in jail and you would never hear from them again. So I was marked by this situation, and even when I went to study abroad, Haiti was always in my mind.
IPS: How did you find your involvement in the first Aristide government? MPL: It was very exhilarating, at the beginning. Everybody in the world was saying finally Haiti is going to come out, finally democracy is going to be built … When the 1991 coup occurred, I was probably the first person to give an interview and say, no matter what, the coup was unjustified. Aristide was our president and he was elected democratically and we’re going to fight for him to stay in power.
In 2022, the USC Institute on Inequalities in Global Health conducted an oral history interview with Pierre-Louis. Here’s a 7-minute clip from the project.
From USC’s video notes:
Michèle Pierre-Louis served as Prime Minister of Haiti from 2008 to 2009, the second woman in Haiti’s history to hold the position. An economist by training, she has devoted special attention to improving literacy and adult education, held training sessions for traditional midwives, opened libraries, and made public health one of her core priorities. In her full oral history, she covers her years as Prime Minister and as President and founder of FOKAL, la Fondation Connaissance et Liberté, and reflects on her philosophy that has animated her work in public health over the last several decades.
The full Pierre-Louis archive includes more from her interview, as well as transcripts.
Deibert also wrote about Pierre-Louis’ removal from office in Haiti for AlterPresse in 2009.
A few notes on the dismissal of Prime Minister Michèle Pierre-Louis
Since she assumed office in September 2008, Pierre-Louis was probably more responsible than any other single individual in beginning to restore some level of confidence in Haiti’s government and in encouraging the stirrings of international investment in a nation of industrious but desperately poor people all-too-often written off as an economic basket case. During her tenure, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the the Inter-American Development Bank collectively canceled $1.2 billion of Haiti’s debt, while the latter institution approved an additional $120 million in grants to aid Haiti to improve such sectors as infrastructure, basic services and disaster prevention.
[…]
That being the case, one might then ask why Haiti’s senate, dominated by partisans of Préval’s LESPWA political current, chose this moment to oust Pierre-Louis under the almost-laughable rationale that, in her year in office, she had not solved the problems caused by two centuries of what Haitian writer Frédéric Marcelin in 1904 called “civil strife, fratricidal slaughters, social miseries, economic ignorance and idolatrous militarism.”
With the ouster of Pierre-Louis spearheaded by such LESPWA stalwarts as Senators Joseph Lambert and Jean Hector Anacasis, and with René Préval himself remaining publicly silent as the plot to remove his Prime Minister came to its inevitable and absurd conclusion, there appears to be an explanation as simple as it is depressing for removing Pierre-Louis at a moment when Haiti finally appeared to be gaining some international credibility: The Prime Minister was standing in the way of some powerful people making quite a lot of money.
The University of the Virgin Islands devoted its 2019-20 issue of “Caribbean Perspectives” to the region’s women in power. The special edition, “Female Leadership in the 20th and 21st Century Caribbean,” includes excerpts from academic papers.
“The Influence and Impact of Women in Leadership Roles” by Jacinth L. Henry-Martin, M.A.
“Caribbean Women of Consequence: New Leadership for the 21st Century” by Nandi Sekou, Esq.
”Inspiring a New Generation of Female Political Leadership across the Caribbean by Mutryce A. Williams, Ph.D.
“The Case for More Women Leaders in the Caribbean” by Talibah V. O. Byron, Esq.
“Biblical Female Leaders: Trailblazers for 21st Century Women” by Valerie Knowles Combie, Ph.D
Organizations like Caribbean Women in Leadership are promoting and training women to step into leadership roles to help other women make history and ensure women’s voices are heard in Caribbean nations.
CIWiL promotes and strengthens gender equality in the Caribbean by advocating for transformative politics and policymaking, supporting women in leadership and decision making as well as providing education, training and research.
Join me in the comments to meet more women who have held, or now hold key positions in leadership across the Caribbean. Here’s hoping that one day soon, the United States will emulate what has been accomplished by our southeastern neighbors.
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